No seat assignment in coach while waiting for an upgrade?
 

I am still relatively new to the whole PremEx "experience" (and as an aside I don't think it's going too well based on the last few weeks). Having been an AA PLAT for a number of years I thought the upgrade system on UA would be pretty similar. Now I don't know whether I am disillusioned by UA or just had a really bad experience with one particular check-in agent.

I was on the late flight from DEN -> LGA the other day and requested an upgrade at check-in as nothing had cleared in advance. The agent checked me in and I toddled off to the gate. On the way I noticed that I didn't have a seat assignment (although my reservation clearly had one) but rather a row of stars where the seat should be. On arrival at the gate I ask and am told that while I am waiting for an upgrade I can't hold a confirmed seat in coach. If I got the upgrade great, if not then I would get what was left in coach. I told her that this seemed to be a strange system and especially as the flight was full I would likely get stuck with a lousy seat in coach if I didn't get the upgrade. She shot back that I couldn't have my cake and eat it too, which I considered quite rude. Rather than battle it out (it had been a long day) I took my chances and needless to say got stuck in a middle seat in E- for the flight and was not a happy camper.

Is this really the way the upgrade system works or was something funny going on here?

I think something "funny" was going on. Unless that's a new policy, I've always understood that if you're waitlisted for an upgrade, you can dern sure have a seat assignment in your original class of service!

If that ever happens again, or you find yourself in a similar situation (with a rude gate agent), give a call to the PremEx reservations line.

Would this work? Wouldn't the seats be under airport control and, probably, gate control?

I'm not sure you aren't stuck in this scenario, but I'll be interested if someone has a more informed opinion.
Rich

As I write I'm waitlisted for an upgrade and still have my coach seat assignment. I've never seen it any other way.

If that happens again I suggest you ask for a supervisor. When the supervisor arrives go to a neutral area (away from the counter) and explain your "confusion" to the supervisor who should correct the "mistake".

You most definitely hold a confirmed seat assignment while waiting (and hoping) to clear for an upgrade.

I have never had this happen to me -- and I've never even heard of this happening.

In the future, you might want to get your boarding pass and then as to be added to the DM list for upgrade.

Also, if you have a seat assignment pulled, you might go to another agent (at another gate/at customer service/wherever) to get a boarding pass. Then, ask and make sure you're still on the DM list.

I'm glad to hear this is not the norm and likely I would have done what you all recommended if it wouldn't have been an otherwise cr**** day.

I am at a loss for a reason to explain the situation you faced. Like others who have posted, this has never happened to me in my 20+ years of flying UA. Also, I do not recall seeing this topic come up during the 3 years I've been reading FT UA posts. If your situation were common, it surely would be a frequent topic of discussion on FT.

Maybe the flight that you are standing by for an upgrade is already overbooked and they can't assign you a Y seat?

Otherwise, what you've been told is not true. I was on standby for an upgrade on NRT-SIN last week and I got a Y seat assignment along with a DM card when I checked in at SEA.

If they are not giving out Y seat for those waiting for an upgrade, they are just creating more trouble for themselves having to assign seat to those who didn't clear the upgrade at the gate, that list could be 50+ at times!

Jeff: Really good advice...do it out of earshot of the counter agent so the supervisor doesn't feel an obligation to maintain solidarity with the agent, especially when the agent is wrong....and play dumb and humble, yet knowledgable and forceful.

BTW, I have never heard of this before...I always have a confirmed coach seet while waiting for an upgrade.

Did you have a specific seat assigned when you made the reservation? If not, I agree with Empress. Chances are that the you were never assigned a seat and when you check-in, the flight was in an oversold situation. In other words, no seats were being assigned regardless of whether you were trying to upgrade or not.

You had a bad one unfortunately.

Remember, that even if you add yourself to the upgrade waiting list, you don't have to take the upgrade. You still have your original E+ or exit row advanced seat assignment until you give it up.

-David

I completely agree. I sometimes grab my original seat (E+ or Exit) without waiting - depends on where I am on the upgrading waitlist. If I don't see any chance it's not worth waiting...

HOLY COW!!! I fly 99% of the time out of SFO and they ALWAYS try and do that to me. After being stuck in the middle seat for about the 10th time, I pretty much gave up on upgrading (if it wasn't confirmed).

I'm just a 2P and only just now discovered this site so I didn't know they weren't supposed to do that!!

Maybe this is something they only do to 2Ps.

Needless to say you had a bad day with a bad agent... Yes, you're supposed to secure your assigned seat and IF the upgrade clears you are to release your Economy seat and go up front. Sorry to hear that those Agents didn't value your business...

If you're coming from AA let me inform you some good news: your e-upgrades are deducted based on the distance from Origin to Destination, regardless of the route you're taking. This rule benefits you compared to AA's rule, which as you know deducts upgrades segment per segment... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by pb9997 (edited 03-02-2002).]

welcome, LMVF :-)